Text Heights

This might sound like a stupid question, But, I usually
work on Engineering drawings.
How do you determine the text height when using
arch scales. I'm working in a drawing where the scale
is 1/8"=1'.
When I work on engineering drawings I multiply
0.08 x the scale of the drawing for prop.text. So,
If I working on a 20 scale drawing the text height is 1.6.
But this method doesn't seem to work for drawings using
Arch scales.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Howard Kaplan
Sidney B. Bowne & Son
235 E. Jericho Turnpike
Mineola, NY 11501
Phone: (516)746-2350
Fax: (516)747-1396
www.bownegroup.com

 

Thanks to Chip and Dean.
Makes life a lot easier.

 

DOH!!!

I made on of these years ago for an office I used to work in.......Never
thought to market it and sell it, and at $16 a pop even.

 

It works the same in both, you just need to remember that ARCH scale denote a units change as well. 1/4" = 1'-0" is really a 1:48 scale, so you'd multiply .08 times 48. ONce you understand the concept, you don't need the cheat card, especially at $16.00 a pop.

To get the scale factor in the same units just divde 12 by the scale.
Example:
3/8" = 1'-0"
12/0.375 = 32
text ht. = 0.08x32 = 2.56
or
1/8" = 1'-0"
12/0.125 = 96
text ht. = 0.08x96 = 7.68

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Instead of 0.08 for a text ht. we use .1

The text is a little larger and the mathh is easier. ;o)

 

You would not be concerned with the text size if you draw everything in
Model space in 1:1 and place dimension and text into Paper space viewports.
The title block is placed into Layout in 1:1. Dimension and text size adjust
by itself.. If you change your mind and decide to fit more stuff on your
drawing then you zoom out (scale down) and Apply Dimension. All dimensions
readjust by itself.

If you learn this concept then your life would be much easier. No more
scaling, converting ... The scaling drawings is the atavism from the
drafting board era.

Jan

 

Howard,

You have already been helped, but interestingly, no one offered you the
classic concept of the scale factor.

The actual formula behind Chip's chart, and the other solutions is this:

First off, you did not mention what version of AutoCAD you are using. There
is a tool in AutoCAD 2002 to do what you want in the Text toolbar, the far
right icon. How to use that is another story....see HELP for that.

Back to the Scale Factor....the old way.

If for example you want 3/32" high text in a viewport that is going to be
plotted at 1/8" = 1' - 0", you would do this:

The denominator of the desired plotted scale (8) x 1' or 8 x 12"
divided by the numerator of the desired plotted text height (1).

So the formula is like this: (8 x 12") / 1 = 96
or for a scale such as 3/32" = 1' the scale factor would be 128.

To arrive at a correct text height, you would multiply the desired plotted
text height of 3/32" x the scale factor of 96 (3 x 96) / 32. The actual
drawn text height in the viewport would then be 9 inches.

I know everyone gave you an overview of the answer, but this is how it was
derived.

Maybe I just have too much time on my hands.

Jack Talsky

 

I use the concept of 'pure scale'.

So a 1/8" architects scale is 96. (8*12) and 1/2" is 12.

When I scale a viewport i type '1/12xp'; or 1 over the pure scale.

I use text and dimension styles named after the pure scale. Test that goes on a 1/8" drawing is titled 'dimt98'. And the text height is 96*3/32 or 9" for a text height of 3/32" on the plotted drawing.

The engineering scales have a pure scale also; however based on a drawing where 1 drawing unit equals 1 foot instead fo 1 drawing unit equal to 1inch. So a 20 scale drawing has a pure scale of 20 on a civil engineering drawing and 240 (20*12) on an architectural drawing..

I began, 40 years ago, by making a little table with all the scales used with their 'pure scales' listed next to them.

Back then we did alot of our work overseas so I made another table with SI (metric) conversions. That was really handy in an engineering office since it forestalled the interminable arguments about 'conversion factors'. Saved a lot of time and frustration and egos.

Wally McMillan
McMillan Engineers
Structural Engineering for 140 years.

 

You might want to check that 1/2" calculation.
<G>

 

but interestingly, no one offered you the classic concept of the scale factor.<<

Gee, I thought that's exactly what I offered...
hmmm...
Let me re-read my earlier post to make sure...

...

Yep, that's what I said...

 

well, by golly, tonight it reads better to me. Last night my eyes just
passed right over it...12 times the scale.

Oh well.....sorry about that. I did say it differently, and certainly 10
times more complex. That has to be worth something.

Jack

 

I understand, OLD eyes, eh? ;-)

 

Easy....Use paperspace. Havent tried to figure out text size since R14

 

I've seen this angle before in other discussions.....for our office,
paperspace annoting is not an option. Too much work is done in modelspace
to justify switching standards.

Matt

 

but you annotate through teh window into model..so your actually annotaing
in model space... the only thing you really have to do is set up the
viewports.

its worth the time.

 

That is something I understand and like.... I just never understood the ALL
annotation in PS argument. Once a project is done and small revisions are
made, I make sure the vp's are locked and fix the drawing through PS but for
pure design I need all the space MS will give me.

Matt

 

yeah, but no way am I going to nickname myself OLD-CADeyes.

Jack

 

if you have you dimscale set correctly, you can use the following lisp
routine (modify as needed -watch for word wrap)

(defun c:te ()
(defun scalex ();sets a scale factor based on dimscale and tilemode
(if (/= (getvar "tilemode") 1)
(progn
(if (and (= (getvar "tilemode") 0) (= 1 (getvar "cvport")))
1.0
(/ 1.0 (/ (- (cadr (caddr (car (vports))))
(cadr (cadr (car (vports))))
)
(getvar "viewsize")
)
)
)
)
(getvar "dimscale")
)
)
(setvar "cmdecho" 0)
(setq rrl (getvar "CLAYER")
rrt (getvar "TEXTSTYLE")
dsc (getvar "DIMSCALE")
)
(setq b (tblsearch "layer" "A-Anno-Text"));look for the layer you like
to put your text on
(if (= b nil)(command ".layer" "n" "A-Anno-Text" "c" "3" "A-Anno-Text"
""));if layer not found - make it,change name and color here
(command "layer" "s" "A-Anno-Text" "");set the preferred text layer
current
(mapcar
'(lambda (var val)
(setq hdrlst (cons (cons var (getvar var)) hdrlst))
(setvar var val)
)
'("CmdEcho" "Attreq")
'(0 1)
)
(prompt "\nText Style name <")(princ RRT)(princ ">: ")
(setq tstyle (getstring))
(if (= tstyle "")(setq tstyle RRT))
(setvar "textstyle" tstyle)
(setq hgt (getdist (strcat "\nPlotting text height <" (rtos 0.09375)
">: ")))
(if (not hgt) (setq hgt 0.09375));sets the default height of text at
3/32"
(setq hgt (* (scalex) hgt))
(setq pt1 (getpoint "\nStart Point for Text: "))
(prompt "\nText: ")
(command "dtext" pt1 hgt "")
(foreach var hdrlst (setvar (car var) (cdr var)))
(setvar "clayer" rrl)
(setvar "textstyle" rrt)
(setvar "dimscale" dsc)
(setvar "cmdecho" 1)
(princ)
;---< End Of File >---
)

 

I "design" in model space. i dont even setup my PS till its time to create a
working drawing

 

a word of caution - for this to work, text heights in "style" need to be set
to 0.0

 

you will need a simple mathematic
1/8" = 1'
1/8" = 12"
1 unit = 12x8 = 96 unit

multiply both sides by your desired scale which 1/8 example:
1/8" (scale) = 96/8 = 12" (text height)

you can do that in all scales you want.